“What’s the Worst That Could Happen?” (2001) is a rhetorical question, but there is an answer. The worst that could happen is you could assemble an incredibly deep cast (Nora Dunn, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Bernie Mac and many more) for an interesting story pitting white collar and streetwise crooks against each other in a match of masculine one-upmanship – but then have Martin Lawrence as the star. Lawrence’s schtick and some horrible impersonations by he and John Leguizamo are a lowest-common-denominator drag that exacerbates an uneven performance by co-star Danny DeVito as a lascivious corporate raider who spars with Lawrence’s burglar.
Archives for posts with tag: Bernie Mac
A mismatched pair of protagonists has to travel a long distance for an important reason. Friction abounds. Hijinks ensue. There’s an epiphany along the way. We’re not so different after all. It’s the plot for something like 852 different movies. “Soul Men” (2008) is one of those movies. Thankfully, Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie Mac are the protagonists and the backstory is interesting (estranged former Motown artists reunite) so the trip is relatively enjoyable. But like a lot of these movies, there’s hijink overkill and you get to the point where you’re like, “Geez, can they just get there already?”
It doesn’t take an effing genius to figure out “Bad Santa 2” (2016) wouldn’t be as good as the original because Bernie Mac is effing dead, so is John Ritter, and Heather Graham must have been too effing busy to answer the phone. Half the main characters (Santa-suited safe cracker Billy Bob Thornton, elf Tony Cox, clueless Brett Kelly) are back, but that’s just not enough. There was something about the original that made its degenerate nature a guilty pleasure. This one has too much dirty and not enough whimsy. Like a 21-year-old Thurman Merman, the effing innocence is gone.
100wordreviews 